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Editorial: Let junior troops testify

One battlefield lesson seemingly never learned is how fundamentally wrong it is to be less than fully open and truthful about what is taking place in the war zone.

Apparently, the public scorn and congressional wrath the Army suffered for lying about the actions of Cpl. Pat Tillman and Pfc. Jessica Lynch were not enough to convince some Pentagon leaders that it is folly to attempt to manipulate public perceptions about the war effort.

Earlier this month on Capitol Hill, a Pentagon lawyer halted a classified briefing on arguably the most important mission in the war in Iraq — training Iraqi security forces — by invoking a new Defense Department policy banning testimony or briefings by troops in paygrades below O-6 unless their testimony is “deemed appropriate” by senior officials.

Though midlevel and junior troops are training Iraqis and are deeply knowledgeable about that effort, Pentagon leaders for some reason did not want them to share their views with the House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee.

The policy’s author, Assistant Defense Secretary Robert Wilkie, said the goal is to better manage the large number of requests for Capitol Hill appearances by defense personnel.

But it’s hard not to suspect that the new policy is really intended to stifle testimony that might conflict with Pentagon portrayals of conditions on the ground.

How ironic it is that the troops risking their lives to establish democracy in Iraq have been denied rights of free speech to inform Congress and the nation about those efforts.

Lawmakers were properly outraged and say the new policy won’t stand — and it shouldn’t.

The nation is in the midst of a critical debate on whether to continue to spend its blood and treasure on the war in Iraq, and progress in training Iraqi security forces is a central issue. Congress must have unobstructed access to any service member it deems necessary to call upon, from a private to a four-star, in the quest to get to the truth about the war.